Namba to Shinsekai

Begin on Ebisubashi, the bridge facing the Glico sign, and walk west along the canal on the Tombori Riverwalk at water level rather than on the street above. Two minutes, and you have the signboards without the crowd in front of them.

Cut back up and south into Hozenji Yokocho: two flagstoned lanes, lantern lit, with a small temple at the end whose stone Fudo Myoo is completely furred with moss because four centuries of passers-by have thrown water at it. Throw some. It takes ten minutes and it is twenty metres from the loudest street in the city.

Then east through Sennichimae – stop at Wanaka for takoyaki, eight for ¥500, eaten standing – and on to Kuromon Ichiba, the covered food market. Kuromon is now expensive and heavily tourist-facing; walk it for the fish counters and the atmosphere rather than to eat, and know that at 15:00 it is winding down, which is when it is most pleasant.

South-east from the market, across the Sennichimae-dori and down through Nipponbashi – Den Den Town, Osaka’s electronics and anime quarter, which is the city’s Akihabara and considerably less polished than the Tokyo version. It takes twenty minutes to walk through and rewards a detour only if that is your thing.

Then Shitenno-ji, founded 593, the oldest officially administered Buddhist temple in Japan. The grounds are free. Inside, three separate tickets: Central Garan ¥500, Honbo Garden ¥300, Treasure House ¥500. Hours are 8:30 to 16:30 April to September and 8:30 to 16:00 October to March, which is why the 15:00 start matters – arrive later and the Garan is shut.

If today happens to be the 21st, the whole precinct is a flea market with several hundred stalls and extended hours, and you should give it an hour rather than twenty minutes.

Fifteen minutes west and slightly south brings you to Shinsekai, laid out in 1912 and barely touched since the 1950s rebuild. Walk in through the covered Jan-Jan Yokocho arcade rather than along the main road: it is narrow, lit, lined with kushikatsu counters and shogi parlours, and it is the best two hundred metres in Osaka.

Dinner is kushikatsu and nothing else. Daruma’s 1929 original has twelve seats and no reservations, skewers at ¥143 to ¥396, open to 22:30. If the queue is long, any counter in the arcade with a visible fryer will do. One dip per skewer, and the free cabbage is a scoop.

Tsutenkaku is overhead, now ¥1,500 with a compulsory advance reservation, open to 21:45. Book it in the morning if you want it; you can no longer decide at the base. Home from Ebisucho on the Sakaisuji line or Dobutsuen-mae on the Midosuji line – and remember that JR’s Shin-Imamiya, five minutes away, is a different company with a different fare.